[01.16.09] SM Artistes Barred Indefinitely From KBS Music Bank

Update: At least KBS was not sneaky about this. Despite the ban from appearing on Music Bank, So Nyeo Shi Dae still managed to win the K-Chart for Gee, their first win since their comeback over Baek Ji Young and K.Will.

BoA, DBSK, etc will not be appearing on KBS Music Bank indefinitely after SM Entertainment were served with a notice from KBS this month. This apparently was because of DBSK no-show at KBS Gayo Daechuk last year.

DBSK was in Japan for the final 2 days of 2008 as they had to attend the TBS Japan Record Awards and the 59th Kohaku Uta Gassen 2008 respectively and thus couldn’t attend KBS and MBC gayo festivals. But in the process, there was a breakdown in communications between SM Entertainment and KBS resulting in Shinee, Super Junior, etc missing KBS Gayo Daechuk as well.

Competition was fierce to get singers to appear at the year-end gayo festivals for the 3 respective major broadcasters, SBS, KBS and MBC. KBS was probably incensed to see BoA and DBSK appearing at Festival S (SBS gayo festival) but not appearing at theirs. As a form of punishment, KBS has thus decided to prohibit SM artistes from appearing on Music Bank indefinitely.

The worst hit SM artistes at the moment must be So Nyeo Shi Dae who made their comeback recently with their Gee mini-album. They were originally scheduled to make a grand comeback on Music Bank on 9th January. But it was shelved at the very last moment on 8th January and the girls had to make their comeback a day later instead on Music Core. The girls are already handicapped by SM Entertainment problems with Mnet (rumors put it that it was because of DBSK failing to win major awards at MKMF) resulting in the no-shows on M! Countdown, leaving them with only Music Core and Inkigayo.

The ban was initially dismissed by SM Entertainment who said that the girls wanted more time to prepare and so their Music Bank comeback was delayed to 16th January. But it was strange that they would say that since it was only a day later before they would appear on Music Core. But fans didn’t make too much fuss over it since Shinee was on the 9th January episode of Music Bank. But after seeing Shinee and So Nyeo Shi Dae missing from the 16th January Music Bank lineup, the ban looks like it’s being enforced by KBS.

In an interview with a Music Bank PD, “Currently, SM Entertainment artistes are only barred from appearing on KBS Music Bank. It will not affect their appearances on other shows on the KBS network. The ban is indefinite.”

There were also talks that Tae Yeon of So Nyeo Shi Dae was actually considered by KBS to take over from the outgoing Seo In Young as the MC of Music Bank. But the ban effectively puts an end to that and announcer Park Eun Young will take over Seo In Young instead from today’s episode onwards.